Everyone is on the take — the arhtiya, the miller, the procurement agencies and the administration. This is an activity of money-laundering , a fit case for the ED to investigate.

Ajay Vir Jakhar

EVEN during the Covid-19 lockdown, when the country had literally come to a stop, grain procurement in Punjab was seamless. Now for the first time in living memory, Punjab is suffering from mishandling of paddy procurement. It is a testament to the collapse of the state administration.

In a bizarre turn of events, farmers are supporting arhtiyas and millers — the very sets of businesses that fleece them. Till about 15 years ago, it was normal to see farmer unions protesting against the arhtiyas’ monopolistic behaviour and unfairness. The arhtiya provides the credit and is the sole agent through whom the farmers are compelled to sell their grains.

The tables have now turned, the smart-playing arhtiyas having successfully courted farmer unions’ leaders. This is a telling indictment of either their integrity or the judgment.

It is vital to distinguish causes from symptoms before seeking the cure, given that politicians refuse to act on the nature of the disease and which is why cure is elusive.

The state incentivising farmers to grow a particular paddy variety that the millers refuse to mill. The department officials taking neither the farmers nor the millers into confidence. Unapproved paddy variety seeds being openly sold in the market. Extension services to educate farmers being poor. Counter-claims of high percentage of broken rice in the milling process being made. Transporters refusing to shift grains. The Food Corporation of India not transporting grain to consumption centres and clearing storage space in time. These are the symptoms of misgovernance and incompetence at the tehsil, district, sub-national and national levels.

The thing about incompetence is that it turns up in almost every field, especially amongst leaders and administrators. One needs to better understand how to reduce this weaponising of incompetence, not the least because those most affected often don’t have the resources or the understanding of the subject.

The minimum support price for paddy is Rs 2,350 per quintal and it is fully paid by the Central Government, as is the milling cost. But practically, farmers are receiving about 4-8 per cent lower MSP for their paddy, thanks to the illicit demand of millers, facilitated by the arhtiya associations. Many farmers are forced to mix different grades and varieties of paddy to offset the losses and deliver paddy with a high moisture content to the mandi. The FCI not accepting paddy with high moisture sets off the vicious cycle of problems and opens the space for political one-upmanship.

What is the big picture? The annual procurement of paddy from Punjab is about 185 lakh metric tonnes and worth about Rs 43,500 crore. Conservatively presuming that a 6 per cent charge is illegally imposed on farmers for only half of the procured produce, it amounts to Rs 1,300 crore per season. Everyone is on the take — the arhtiya, the miller, the procurement agencies and the administration. This is a money-laundering activity, a fit case for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to investigate.

This crisis is partly due to the fact that the Punjab Mandi Board and its market committees which regulate the mandis, unlike before, are nominated with the political patronage of the ruling party in the state, as are the arhtiya associations which control the happenings in the mandi. It is vital that a majority of the members of the board and marketing committees are elected to their positions.

Additionally, three laws should be implemented in spirit: (1) truck unions are banned by law, but they continue to flourish. This increases the costs of transportation, procurement of grains by the FCI and consumer goods and fuels food inflation. That the politician — or ‘halka in charge’, as s/he is called in an Assembly constituency — in Punjab gets a share is common knowledge. (2) The Punjab Registration of Moneylender’s Act, 1938 mandates that moneylenders and arhtiyas have to register and disclose their accounts fairly. It is doubtful if any district collector, the person responsible for this, has even read the Act. (3) Similarly, there is the Punjab Settlement of Agricultural Indebtedness Act, 2016, whereby once the debtor has paid double of the principal amount, the debt is to be considered paid and discharged.

These and other channels of grievance redress, like gram sabhas, have been clinically nullified by the politicians.

Curiously, farmer union leaders are silent on the real issues. The ineffective grievance redress mechanisms prompt the farmers to turn to unions to take up their cause, as they should. Farmer unions, like political parties, are competing amongst themselves for space. This leads the union leaders to look for populist palliatives rather than long-term solutions.

When farmers in Punjab close highways, squat on railway tracks, make toll plazas free and support issues unrelated to their profession, the media and society wrongly conclude that farmer unions have become contrarians. This is an incorrect perception because a contrarian is not one who always objects. A contrarian reasons independently and does not conform to oppose at every turn. Thus, farmers’ protests have lost the support and sympathy of the non-farming classes.

More worrisome is that a large percentage of the country has now become indifferent. If outcomes are to change, so must behaviour. This must be true in policy and for farmer advocacy.

A myth being propagated to distract the attention of the farmers from the real issue is that paddy procurement at MSP will end. The fact is that under the Modi government, the numbers of farmers benefiting from the MSP has risen by 50 per cent and procurement increased to include more crops and regions. Having absurdly promised free grains to 800 crore people for five years, there is no way the PM could end the MSP procurement even if he wanted to. This is especially so after the ruling party won only 240 parliamentary seats at the hustings, changing the trajectory of politics in the country.

As in the ripening of grain, time is a factor, and this crisis, too, has been a long time in the making. The Akali Dal and the Indian National Congress, having ruled Punjab for decades, are equally answerable for the chaotic times. The Aam Aadmi Party has only perpetuated the blasphemous state of affairs.

Its Delhi durbar controlling the strings and the administration in the state has made the Chief Minister pick the wrong battles. But after being at the helm for over two years, the CM should have known which bridges to cross and which to burn.

Published Date: November 5, 2024